Plain definitions for onion address, bridge, obfs4, Snowflake, live system, amnesic, gateway and workstation, security level and signature verification.
nexusb2l7fmqnefwphyy7m5zjhlkytlbo7qbb5lu5dlczr3azgii2gyd.onionnexusma2iqgauqqvjcgds4ckv5xbf272tkfagq4epojjhsgleqpwxiqd.onionnexusabcd6tyfhdwilyitaqiri6tisj2v2hueyjuj6qkvd6azvi5tuqd.onionPlain definitions for the words used across this guide. None of it needs prior knowledge and none of it is specific to one market.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Onion address | A fifty six character address derived from a key rather than chosen. It is not registered anywhere and only Tor can resolve it, which is why an ordinary browser returns nothing. |
| Tor Browser | A modified Firefox configured so its users look alike and all traffic goes through Tor. The configuration is the protection, which is why adding extensions to it makes things worse. |
| Bridge | A Tor relay whose address is not published, so a network that blocks Tor by filtering the public relay list cannot block it. |
| obfs4 | A way of disguising Tor traffic as random noise with no recognisable pattern, used with bridges on networks that filter by traffic shape. |
| Snowflake | A bridge type that makes Tor traffic look like an ordinary video call, useful because it needs no arrangement in advance. |
| Live system | An operating system that boots from removable media and leaves the installed system untouched. Tails is the one most people mean. |
| Amnesic | Keeps nothing after shutdown. Everything lives in memory and the memory is wiped, so the machine has no record of the session. |
| Gateway and workstation | The two virtual machines in a Whonix setup. The workstation has no route to the network except through the gateway, which speaks only Tor. |
| Security level | The shield setting in Tor Browser with three positions. Safest turns scripting off everywhere and is the right choice for anything that matters. |
| Signature verification | Checking a downloaded file against the publisher signature to prove it was not modified in transit. Ten minutes, once, and it is the only proof available. |
| Captive portal | The page a public network makes you accept before letting traffic through. Tor Browser cannot get past it, which produces a failure that looks like Tor being blocked and is not. |
| Cold load | The first page of a session, which pays for the whole connection setup. Every page after it reuses that work and arrives in seconds. |
A live system and a virtual machine sound like the same idea and are opposites in one important way. A live system keeps nothing, which is what makes it strong and what makes it inconvenient. A virtual machine keeps everything, which is what makes it convenient and what makes it a thing you have to look after. Pick according to whether you want no trace or a durable setup.
The other pair is a bridge and a proxy. A bridge is part of Tor and exists so a blocked network cannot filter you out. A proxy is a separate company standing between you and the network, which sees your traffic and knows who paid it. They solve different problems and only one of them is designed for this.